TOURS AND DETOURS, designed for teaching colonial history to school aged children, takes the visitor on a swift journey through time; from the early encounters of the Europeans and Native Americans. Through conflicts and wars, life during the colonial era and the American Revolution, visitors are invited to immerse themselves in a distant past.
The design places real artifacts protected in cases, replica objects, models, and hands-on activities into 5 different exhibit galleries. Using a road sign vernacular for graphic panels visitors explore the galleries by moving along a “colonial roadway” with stops and detours along the way to discover activities: create a Native American moccasin, piece together a puzzle map of the early streets of colonial Hartford, enter a recreation of a house and dress up in clothes of colonial times.
An object theater of the Revolution offers the recitation of three different stories told from the perspective of a woman, a white male soldier and an African American. Using theatrical lighting to highlight select objects that correspond to the stories told, the artifacts assume different significance in opposing stories.
The video entitled Tours and Detours through Colonial Connecticut takes the viewer on a road trip throughout contemporary Connecticut to visit colonial sites and to learn how history has been preserved and erased over time.
TOURS AND DETOURS, designed for teaching colonial history to school aged children, takes the visitor on a swift journey through time; from the early encounters of the Europeans and Native Americans. Through conflicts and wars, life during the colonial era and the American Revolution, visitors are invited to immerse themselves in a distant past.
The design places real artifacts protected in cases, replica objects, models, and hands-on activities into 5 different exhibit galleries. Using a road sign vernacular for graphic panels visitors explore the galleries by moving along a “colonial roadway” with stops and detours along the way to discover activities: create a Native American moccasin, piece together a puzzle map of the early streets of colonial Hartford, enter a recreation of a house and dress up in clothes of colonial times.
An object theater of the Revolution offers the recitation of three different stories told from the perspective of a woman, a white male soldier and an African American. Using theatrical lighting to highlight select objects that correspond to the stories told, the artifacts assume different significance in opposing stories.
The video entitled Tours and Detours through Colonial Connecticut takes the viewer on a road trip throughout contemporary Connecticut to visit colonial sites and to learn how history has been preserved and erased over time.